1. Technical Field
The invention relates to the field of antennas that propagate an electronic signal, and more particularly to a planar array type of antenna comprising a plurality of signal generating or receiving elements having a transceiver segment substrate with a dielectric substrate formed on top of a signal generating face of the driver segment substrate.
2. Background Art
There are many alternative forms and formats for an antenna that propagates an electronic signal. An antenna often is designed or adapted particularly for a selected frequency range, size, or directional characteristics.
The current state of the art for one wideband antenna design consists of antenna having a substrate layer having a plurality of driver segments generating the electronic signal. A machined/molded stepped transformer layer is made from metal or plated plastic and is formed on a face of the substrate layer to change the electrical impedance characteristics of the antenna for optimal signal matching or transmission and other reasons. Such an antenna design tends to be long or thick to achieve the required bandwidth. They are usually attached to an antenna array at or near the feed points. They are complicated and expensive elements by themselves, and are difficult to attach to the feed points because electrical contact needs to be maintained.
A traditional notch element can realize very wide bandwidths by employing an impedance taper, such as a Chebyshev or Exponential, to match the impedance at the feed to that of free space. In the stepped notch, the width and length of each stepped section is adjusted to provide the individual impedance values required to realize the desired taper. The total number of sections (and overall height) is dependent upon the amount of bandwidth required. See, FIGS. 3 and 5
While the above cited references introduce and disclose a number of noteworthy advances and technological improvements within the art, none completely fulfills the specific objectives achieved by this invention.